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URSA teaches the teachers during conference

Cathy Wentz
9:58 p.m. MDT July 11, 2014

Teachers coming from throughout the state gather for the Utah Rural Schools Association teachers’ conference at Southern Utah University from Tuesday through Friday.
(Photo:
Asher Swan / The Spectrum & Daily News
)

CEDAR CITY – Teachers for kindergarten through the 12th grade from school districts in rural areas throughout Utah gathered at the Southern Utah University campus for several days this past week to sharpen their teaching skills, part of the Utah Rural Schools Association teacher conference.

Ray Terry, president of the URSA and superintendent for Beaver School District, said more than 300 teachers from 26 school districts such as Daggett and Kane counties attended the conference, and most of them were there on their personal time.

Sue Wood came from Altamont Elementary School in Duchesne County where she teaches kindergarten. She said she has been attending the USRA teacher conferences for many years.

“I always get good information that helps me be a better teacher,” she said. “It’s always worth my time.”

She said the conference provides her with new resources and technology that she is excited to bring back to her own classroom.

One of the technological resources she is looking forward to using as she looks forward to the new school year is designing a presentation targeted for her new kindergartners’ parents using Prezi software. She described Prezi as being similar to Power Point except she has the freedom to manipulate the elements of a presentation more with Prezi than she could with Power Point to make it more appealing.

“I personally want to do one for the parents to give them information about our kindergarten curriculum,” Wood said, noting that she expects to be able to use Prezi to present lessons to her students as well.

She said she was introduced to Prezi when she attended the teachers’ conference a couple of years ago, so this year’s instruction in the software package served as a refresher course. It has changed some since her introduction to it, she said, so she learned about those changes.

Karen Sampson, who serves as a curriculum specialist for the Northeastern Utah Education Center, conducted a workshop Thursday afternoon in which she provided teachers with strategies for helping all their students to be engaged in learning math.

She said the workshop she presented was aimed at helping teachers in meeting the new Utah State Standards that include Eight Math Practices. She emphasized the importance of helping students become proficient in math and be able to understand what they are doing rather than just running algorithms.

She explained the emphasis as helping the students understand the mathematical concepts involved in the standard ways they are taught to solve problems.

Terry said the URSA has used the SUU campus for its summer teachers’ conferences for more than 20 years, and the university has been “great to work with” in terms of making its facilities and resources available.